Holiday crafts make meaningful gifts and decorations that will last. You might even craft the next family heirloom! Here are the top 4 holiday crafts you’ll want to make this year.

By Jayne Turner – Staff Writer

Paper Garlands

Garlands have been popular decorations since the Victorian era. Paper garlands are easily customizable, personalized, and evoke a nostalgic feel. Yielding décor, this holiday craft is fun and functional. 

The best part, is that you can use any kind of paper! Colorful construction paper is standard, but old newspapers, books, or even homework assignments will do. 

All you have to do is cut strips, form a loop, and secure the ends with glue, tape, or a stapler. The longer your strands of paper, the looser the chain will be. Repeat until the garland is your desired length!

Gingerbread House

A gingerbread house is a classic Christmas activity that can be just-for-fun or competitive. Though baking a gingerbread house can be tedious, requiring a mold and a perfect recipe, there are easier ways to do it! Here are three options, varying in difficulty:

Easy: There are a wide variety of gingerbread house kits available at the store that look adorable! If you’re making a gingerbread house as a fun group activity, this option is fine! it just won’t be as tasty or customized as the homemade options. 

Medium: Simply use graham crackers to construct a house, then decorate! The key is to make sure that the icing has set, so your house doesn’t come crashing down with the weight of the candy decorations. Check out this tutorial. 

Hard: The trick to a sturfy gingerbread house is a crisp cookie. Soft gingerbread won’t hold up. This tutorial includes a recipe, template, and lots of pro tips. Doing it all yourself is a lot of work, but it will be entirely personal to you, which is a nice touch. 

You may be interested in these gifts for the zodiac signs!

Ornaments

There are so many options to choose from when making homemade ornaments. Clay, felt, or recycled materials are all great options! You set the difficulty level here, so craft to your heart’s desire!

Clay ornaments are my favorite. You can make literally any shape that you want! When they dry, you can paint them to decorate or keep them simple. You can also use multi-color air-dry clay to skip the painting part.

 Felt ornaments require two identical felt shapes for the front and back of the ornament, a little stuffing, and gluing or sewing the sides together. You can add decorations on top of the base shape, like beads to a Christmas tree or a carrot nose to a snowman.

Recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, or scrap fabric are an eco-friendly craft for using items that you already have at home. For these crafts, a hot glue gun is super helpful for binding together those abnormal materials that a glue stick won’t. This list of recycled ornaments will get your creative juices flowing!

Fan of whimsy? You may also like this article on Dr Suess.

Holiday Cards

There is nothing like a nice festive card to mail out for the holidays. You can use stamps, glitter, or just cut up paper to create a unique design! Fold and cut paper to create a 3D pop-up. The options are endless!

I like using pipe cleaners to make a Christmas tree design, cutting out and gluing designs into the card, and using lots of color. This craft can be great for kids, since it doesn’t require hot glue and the result will be a sweet present no matter what. You can even create a template and allow them to color in the lines!

The holidays are for gifting, but nothing feels as warm and fuzzy as receiving something handmade. Head to your local craft store to pick up whatever materials you like to use, and get crafting!

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Author: Jayne Turner is a freelance writer from Orange, California. She has a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience with an emphasis on language and cognition. She has ten years of musical theatre experience and a lifelong love of reading. Utterly excited by the brain, she brings a fresh Gen Z perspective to the topics that intrigue us most